Toby's Return
by Zoe Jane Carmina
Summary: Toby did not make it out of the Labyrinth unscathed; he is touched by faerie, and is dying to go back.
1. Chapter One

p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 115%;"span style="font-size: 12pt;"Chapter One/span/p  
p style="text-indent: .5in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 115%;" align="justify"span style="font-size: 12pt;" Toby opened his eyes. He could hardly see anything given the dim light coming through his blinds. His alarm on his cell phone was blaring loudly, and he hastily turned it off and stubbornly lay in bed. He had been dreaming something, and it had seemed so significant at the time, yet the dream was already fading from him. Something about finding a man at the center of a maze. No, that couldn't be right. Wasn't it supposed to be a minotaur?br /br /He sleepily got out of bed. If he didn't get dressed and get downstairs soon, he wouldn't have time for breakfast before he had to go to middle school. He threw on a pair of jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt, and ran a brush through his unruly blonde hair. Grabbing his backpack from his desk chair, he bolted down the /br /His father was already sitting at the table reading the newspaper while noisily slurping his coffee. For the life of him, Toby didn't know why people decided to drink that stuff while it was still so hot. Didn't they end up burning their tongue every morning? It wasn't like his dad was a Firey. /spanspan style="font-size: 12pt;"Wait, what am I thinking? Was that in my dream last night too? /spanspan style="font-size: 12pt;"He tried, but he really couldn't remember. He shook himself. Today was going to be a long /br /He didn't bother trying to talk to his father. They didn't have much in common anyway. For as long as he could remember growing up, his father was always so serious. He didn't appreciate Toby's passion for fantasy novels, or music, or playing Dungeons and Dragons, or, well, anything really. It was only when Sarah left for New York that his father began to settle down, though he would eye Toby suspiciously across the dinner table if he made a book reference or something of the /br /Toby's mother was not really around much for him either. Of course she cooked and cleaned and washed his socks, but she only ever really seemed to care about his father, and playing bridge with the ladies on Saturdays. The most he really dealt with her was at the dinner table at night, and even then she only payed attention to father, unless his school had sent a notice to them that he had done something dreadful /br /It wasn't really his fault. His first memory was that of a little goblin creature, poking him in the nose. He really didn't appreciate it when they tried that, and he would often cry. Occasionally the goblins would be terribly cruel to him, pulling his pants down while he tried to give a class presentation, knocking his beaker straight off the lab table, or even dancing around him if he ever tried to talk to a girl. He'd even met the King of the Goblins a time or two, while he was visiting for business. Apparently they'd hit it off, and King Jareth had invited him to visit the land of faerie at some point in the /br /When at the age of six they woke up on Christmas morning to the sound of live chickens in their living room, he proudly declared that they were a gift from his friends, the goblins. She became so concerned with his goblin fascination that she promptly send him to see a shrink. After many long hours, Toby realized that the shrink and his mother could not see the goblins he had made such good friends with at all. Eventually, he gave up trying to convince people about them, and thinking he was some sort of weirdo, people tended to shy /br /"Now Toby, don't get into trouble today, okay? You need to come straight home from school so we can be ready when your sister arrives." Toby groaned. He completely forgot that Sarah was supposed to be coming down to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with them. He wondered if she was going to hate it as much as he was. At least they'd have that much in /br /Truth be told, Sarah was already grown up by the time Toby started to know her. Their age difference was so vast that he often wondered what kinds of things she used to do when she was his age. Sarah was very serious about things too, having left the family as soon as she could to become a perfectly sensible lead accountant in a prominent accounting firm. She must have made a decent amount of money, because she often came back to visit. But whenever she came back, it would be without news of a man of any kind. Sarah was alone a lot like him, and he wondered briefly if that was the doing of the goblins too, or just because she liked it better that /br /He grabbed a package of Pop-Tarts from the pantry, and zipped out of the door before his father could chastise him into brushing his teeth. Nobody came near enough to Toby to make friends except the goblins, and the goblins didn't care. He yawned, still trying to shrug off the dream, and stepped out into the cold morning air. He picked up his pace, meeting up with some kids waiting at the bus stop at the end of the block, and was glad for once that he wasn't going to be late /br /Opening his Pop-Tarts, he pulled one out of the pouch, and bit into it happily. The goblins were nowhere to be seen this morning, which was pretty curious, but the kids around him paid him no mind, and went on with their conversations that clearly didn't involve him. Trying again to remember what his dream was about, Toby realized it was futile. He couldn't even remember what he had known when he first awoke. The bus arrived, and he shoved the last bit of his breakfast into his mouth, chewing it as quickly as he could before he got onto the bus. If the bus driver caught him eating on her bus again, he'd be toast. She eyed him warily, but he had already swallowed the last bit of jelly goodness. She closed the doors behind him, and he prepared himself for the dreary school day./span/p 


	2. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

Sarah really hated planes. No, that wasn't really a fair assessment. What she really hated was the whole experience of traveling by flight. No matter what she did, she could never really have a decent flight. Oh she had tried many a time. She had horror stories about traveling by air.

Once, her flight was delayed overnight, and she ended up having to sleep in the airport terminal just so she could catch the first flight back out. Then she had to come into work the moment she landed, and was forced to leave her luggage in her car. When she finally got back to it, her luggage, including all her bras and underwear, was strung across her back seat. Her coworkers, also leaving for the day, managed to see her car and were thoroughly scandalized by her underthings. She was mortified and wouldn't make eye contact with anyone for a week.

Another time, her belongings got lost in the terminal. When they attempted to track her bags, they'd determined that it had gotten onto the plane with her, but somehow, got lost between the plane and the terminal. She waited for hours in the airport while they searched for her luggage, but to this day her bags were never found.

There was a different time when she had just enough time to eat a hot dog before her flight. She bolted it down before boarding, and then became violently ill the moment the plane was in the air. The three hour flight was one of the longest of her life.

Though she had visited home many a time by plane, she decided that this time, she would drive. It was just easier. She'd be in control of her destiny and her underthings, thank-you very much.

Driving had also given her plenty of time to think about things. Visiting her family wasn't always awful, but then again, most of the time, it was. She dreaded the act that she was going to have to put on for her folks. They never really approved of her fantasy role-playing anyway. Not that she did much of that anymore. She knew better than to say anything that began with "I wish" anymore as well. When she told Jareth that he had no power over her, she really meant it, and that single phrase really stayed with her into her adulthood.

Still, she would often get the feeling that Jareth was trying to mess with her life. The goblins were pretty careful not to show themselves to her, but she could still sense when they were near. And there were other things too, quite curious things that would happen whenever she was interested in, or approached by a guy.

One time, a very shy guy had tried to speak with her about a study group during her years in college, and then he finally looked up after talking to his feet the whole time, and basically ran away. She got a note from a guy she had met over a cup of coffee at the local cafe, saying "I'm sorry I took up so much of your time, but I met the guy you like and realized I'm way out of his league." That had creeped her out, because she hadn't been interested in anyone else at the time. And for the most part, she could say that guys didn't really even try to approach her at all. It wasn't like she wasn't interested in them, but they never seemed to make it past a first meeting.

She sighed heavily. It was Jareth, meddling in her affairs. She just KNEW it was! But there was no real proof, and it was far easier to be a functioning adult when you fully ignored the goblins mulling around in your wake. That included the Goblin King. After getting to know him during her time spent in the Labyrinth, Sarah wanted no more part in his schemes. She was glad she was done with that chapter in her life.

More than anything, she was glad that Toby had turned out to be a pretty normal kid. Sure he was a bit awkward, but at his age, she was pretty weird and awkward herself. She sometimes worried when he talked to himself. She was terrified that since they had both spent so much time in the faerie realms, it would have turned him a bit funny. But Toby enjoyed reading and playing his nerd games just as much as she had, and she'd managed to turn out alright.

She turned down her street, thinking fondly of her little brother, when a puff of glittering smoke turned up in the sidewalk in front of her lawn, and looked at her with a mischievous smile. She hadn't seen that lopsided grin in so long that she nearly crashed into the curb outside her house in shock. Putting the car into park, she turned off the engine, as Jareth, the King of the Goblins, stepped out into the street and opened her previously locked car door.

"Hello Sarah." He said, extending a hand to help her out of her vehicle.

Sarah was in full-panic mode. She pushed his hand away, standing angrily. She began having the worst deja vu's of her life. "What are you doing here? Where's Toby?" She said, trying to sound calm.

"Toby? What, have you wished him away again? You do that so often." He chuckled and flashed his most charming smile, clearly expecting her to laugh along with him. "Oh, come on Sarah, it's been such a long time. Is that how you would greet an old friend?"

Light pooled outside the doorway of her house, and a voice came floating along on the wind. "Sarah! You're home!" Her father came down the pathway, Toby in tow behind him. "And who's this gentleman you've brought with you?"

Momentarily thunderstruck that Jareth was still allowing himself to be seen, Sarah had no words. Jareth took up the introductions instead. "Hello, it's so nice to finally meet you! I'm Jareth, Sarah's boyfriend."

"Oh how wonderful, Sarah!" Her stepmother said, putting an arm around her dad. "I'm so glad you've found yourself a date! Please, come in Jareth, and make yourself at home!"

And just that fast he had been invited into her home, no questions asked. He gave a wink to Toby, who looked just as confused as she felt, and followed her stepmom into the warmth of the house. "Be a good man and help me bring your sister's things up to her room." her father instructed. "Come on Sarah, before you catch your death out here."

She followed her family numbly into her childhood home, and into the nightmare that awaited her inside.


End file.
